Nigeria

F

The Protectorates

Neither of the two protectorates was under full British control at the time of its establishment. It took another 20 years to establish effective British administration over all of the territory of the original British Oil Rivers Protectorate (1885); Igboland resisted until 1906. It was also not until 1906 that Lugard completed the incorporation of Bornu in the north-east into the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. The entire area of present Nigeria was, however, acknowledged to be British under agreements with Germany and France made during the 1890s.

In 1906 the governments of Lagos and of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria were amalgamated to form the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. In 1912 Lugard, who had been pushing for the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates, was made governor of both. In 1914 he achieved his ambition of a united Nigeria when the two administrations were merged as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. For administrative purposes the country was divided into the Colony of Lagos and the Northern and Southern provinces.

Lugard became the governor-general of Nigeria. He retired in 1919; his successors until independence were all known as governors. During his years as Governor of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, Lugard had had too few British staff to rule the region directly. Instead, he utilized the sophisticated administrative and tax-collection systems of the Fulani emirates to control northern Nigeria in a system known as indirect rule. The emirs were left to rule their peoples within certain limits of British law (such as the prohibition of slavery) and under the supervision of a British resident attached to each court. The emirs were also allowed, as Native Authorities, to keep up to half the taxes collected in their emirates—provided they kept proper accounts and budgets. The other half went to the small central administration to finance services, such as roads, railways, and medical facilities, considered best provided by the British.

As governor-general of the whole country, Lugard tried to introduce indirect rule into southern Nigeria. In Yorubaland there were clearly defined states with rulers who could be recognized as Native Authorities. Elsewhere, however, the situation was very different. The large cities and towns of the south had fluid and mixed ethnic structures which made direct rule necessary in the form of European-style municipal authorities. The diffuse and egalitarian society of the south-east provided no obvious traditional rulers. The British tried to impose rulers, but the results were disastrous. Eventually the British administration agreed to recognize the traditional councils of the region as the Native Authorities for implementing indirect rule.

In 1922 the League of Nations mandate of Cameroons was added, administratively, to Nigeria. In the same year the Nigerian legislative council, which had limited legislative authority over Lagos and the southern provinces, was inaugurated; the northern provinces remained under the jurisdiction of a British governor. The former League of Nations mandate of Cameroons became a UN trust territory in 1946 and remained under British administration until 1961.

G

Independence

Nigerian demands for self-government after World War II resulted in a series of short-lived constitutions. The first, in 1947, established provincial legislatures with limited participation in the government by Nigerians. By succeeding constitutional changes, Nigeria was provided with a federal type of government and the provinces were consolidated into three regions (Eastern, Western, and Northern), each with a measure of autonomy. In 1954 Nigeria became a federation and each region was given the option, dependent on certain safeguards for the federation, to assume a self-governing status. Internal self-government was granted to the Eastern and Western regions in 1957 and to the Northern Region in 1959.

On October 1, 1960, Nigeria became independent within the Commonwealth of Nations. On October 7 it was admitted to membership of the United Nations. The first prime minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, headed a coalition government representing the major parties of the Northern and Eastern regions. The governor-general was Nnamdi Azikiwe, who became president when Nigeria adopted a republican form of government on October 1, 1963. Meanwhile, on February 11 and 12, 1961, the northern section of the former British Cameroons had voted to become a part of Nigeria.

H

Internal Strains

From the early days of independence, ethnic rivalries and religious and political differences seriously strained the unity of the federation. In 1962 a major political crisis developed in the Western Region, which was dominated by the Yoruba and their political party, called the Action Group. The Action Group, which had constituted the chief opposition bloc to the ruling coalition in the federal parliament, split in two during the year. Its parliamentary leader, Obafemi Awolowo, who had expressed fear of a federal plot to break the party’s power, was indicted for treason in 1963 and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment. Meanwhile, as the result of a referendum held in mid-1963 in two districts of the Western Region where non-Yoruba peoples were a majority, a new Mid-West Region was formed.

I

Civil War

Political bickering and corruption, which left young army officers increasingly impatient, finally culminated in a military coup in January 1966. Prime Minister Balewa and two regional premiers were killed. A military government was established by the army commander Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, who abolished the federal system. In July northern officers led a countercoup and killed Ironsi. His successor, Major-General Yakubu Gowon, revived the federation. During the 1960s thousands of Igbo living in the north were killed or sought refuge in their homelands in the south-east.

Relations between the northern-dominated federal government and the Igbo deteriorated as a result. In May 1967 the federal government announced its intention to split the Eastern Region, where the Igbo were the majority of the population, into three states—a move which would leave the Igbo without access to the sea and cut them off from the region’s oil-rich areas. The Eastern Region, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, then seceded and proclaimed itself the Republic of Biafra. Civil war broke out in July and lasted for two-and-a-half years before the Biafran leadership signed a formal surrender on January 15, 1970. During this time an estimated one million people died in Biafra as a result of starvation caused by war-induced food shortages.

J

Oil Wealth

As life in the south-east returned to normal, Nigeria enjoyed four years of rapid economic growth, fuelled by expanding oil revenues; the country became the world’s fifth-largest oil producer. Continued military rule, however, despite promises of return to a civilian government, led to renewed political instability. Gowon was ousted on July 29, 1975, in a bloodless coup led by Brigadier Murtala Ramat Muhammad. Muhammad was himself assassinated in an unsuccessful coup attempt on February 13, 1976. His successor, Lieutenant-General Olusegun Obasanjo, presided over the preparations for a return to civilian rule, which culminated in the promulgation of a new constitution and in the election of a new president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, in the summer of 1979.

The Shagari government, like its predecessors, tried to use oil income to fund ambitious development programmes. In addition, Shagari sought to implement a “green revolution” which would stimulate agricultural productivity and lessen the nation’s increasing dependence on food imports. The weakening of the oil market in the early 1980s dealt a crippling blow to these efforts. Revenues from oil exports, which exceeded US$20 billion in 1980, declined to US$10 billion in 1982, and Nigeria was unable to repay its short-term debts. With foreign exchange scarce, the country could no longer afford essential imports; the economy, already weakened by mismanagement and corruption, sank into severe recession.

In January 1983 the government ordered the expulsion of all unskilled foreigners. At least one million people left, although many soon returned. That August, Shagari was re-elected president; his political organization, the National Party of Nigeria, also showed commanding strength in subsequent voting for the federal legislature and for state offices, although there were widespread allegations of vote-rigging. Nigeria’s economic position continued to worsen, and in December 1983 Shagari was deposed in a coup led by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari.